He was a solid recruit for a program like Minnesota. Most programs can’t pull 4 or 5 top 15 recruits each year. I’m sure that Cael probably wouldn’t put much effort into recruiting that level of kid at the time when he already had Bartlett and Howard in the bag. It becomes much easier to evaluate the talent once a redshirt freshman becomes an AA.
I’d also add that he beat Mendez last year more convincingly at NCAA’s than he did at Big 10’s. Guess he wasn’t able to figure him out after getting a feel.